Engineered to Shop

On the fourth floor of Slusher Wing, a catchy pop song plays as a cell phone rings. Carolyn tears herself away from her engineering homework and answers the call. On the other line is one of her best friends. Collette was calling to invite Carolyn out to lunch with some of the girls. Hanging up the phone, Carolyn jumps up to find her size six Sperry’s and her Hokie Passport. She goes to the mirror to brush her long black hair and asks her roommate, Kelsie, to go with them. “I would love to go,” Kelsie states, “but I really need to get this paper done by English today.” Carolyn thinks a moment then decides her homework can wait and heads out the room towards West End.

Upon meeting Carolyn Tran (“it’s an Asian thing”) Doan you may never guess that she is in the college of Engineering at Virginia Tech, working towards becoming either a mechanical or electrical engineer. Obviously, she is very smart and always manages to get her work done, no matter if it is last minute or not. Carolyn is more than what an outside observer would see, a very trendy girl who obviously loves to shop. Carolyn lives in Hypatia, the engineering living community, but she is not your typical “Hypatian.” She is neither anti-social, nor constantly buried in her books; she is actually quite the opposite of this stereotype.

Carolyn is very outgoing and has many friends, of course. Her friends are the most important thing to her and she knows that she “will always have them there to fall back on.” Most of Carolyn’s friends would describe her as very “lighthearted” and “easygoing.” That say that she is the life of the party and they love watching movies and doing “crazy, random” thing on the weekends. Having such a close relationship with her friends, it is easy to see why they are the number one thing she misses from her hometown.

Even though one could tell by her dark hair and tan complexion that Carolyn is from an Asian heritage, she has lived her whole lived her whole life in Virginia. Growing up in Herndon, moving to Blacksburg would obviously be a big adjustment for a person. Its way different than Blacksburg in Northern Virginia, in that “everything is closer and better,” explains Carolyn. In Herndon, she lived with her parents and her 13 year old brother. Home life in the Doan household can be hectic and chaotic, but you can tell by talking to her little brother, Dat, that they have fun.

“With her father “living as Bill Gates” and her mother “turning off every light to conserve every dollar,” Carolyn typically describes her family as rather “dysfunctional.” This is just from an inside, and slightly bias, point of view, because by talking with her and her family, it is easy to see the amount of love that flows through them. Her father is one of the people that Carolyn looks up to and greatly admires. He is an amazing influence on her life. He is very successful and always knows just what to tell Carolyn. The reason Carolyn wants to become an engineer is because of her father. Wanting to “follow in the footsteps” of her dad, all of her future decisions and choices are influenced by him.

Along with her love for friends and family, Carolyn is obsessed with all the things a 19 year old girl should be: music, food, shopping, TV shows, fashion, and of course Sims 2. “Carolyn is rather literally in into all types of music,” her roommate tells me, who would seem should know this the best. Rap, British rock, pop, country, rock, kid songs, and “even Christmas music out of season” are only a few of her favorite genres.

Being such a petite girl and only about “5 feet and one and a half inches tall,” you would never guess that Carolyn loves food, all types. Her main comfort food would have to be cheese and crackers though because “something about their combination just seems so right.” At home to relax, Carolyn can be found “curled up on the couch with a box of club crackers and a can of cheese,” watching some of her favorite TV shows in her down times. West End is her favorite place on campus to eat, mainly because of their delicious smoothies.

Hands down, anyone who knows or even hears about Carolyn Doan knows of her one true love. Shopping, Carolyn would even describes her number one obsession, and “yes, I would call it a true obsession,” her friend Collette clarifies. One of her goals would be to become a great engineer and make a bunch of money, so she can go out and spend it going shopping. Carolyn always has the cutest clothes and knows exactly what looks good. Her outfits always match and are accessorized perfectly by small earrings and trendy bracelets.

Not only is Carolyn good at picking out and buying clothes, but she is a great at sewing and fixing clothes. Her roommate, Kelsie, would say that sewing, along with baking, is one of Carolyn’s strengths. She remembers one morning when “Carolyn jumped into a pair of pants and ripped the seat out of them,” and with the horrific sound, she though they were done. Amazingly, “within the next two days she had them sewed up and already wearing them around campus.” Carolyn just said, “Now with the new stitches they look original and there’s a great story behind them, literally.”

Carolyn Doan is an amazing person to know and knows how to have fun. There is never a dull moment when she is around, and her company is always welcomed by any one. Although some may call her girly because of her shopping obsession, she is extremely smart and knows what she must do to reach her dreams and become successful. Carolyn is very welcoming of new people and loves making new friends. She is loved by all of her friends and treasured by her family. With her great personality, and of course great fashion sense, Carolyn is definitely an individual every person should know.